fluence his judgment. But the many low defcriptions in the Odyffey, the indecent broils in which the hero is engaged, fo unworthy of his character, the long and tedious details in many of the latter books, betray the old age and declining vigour of the poet. The circumftance, to mention only one inftance out of many that could be cited,of Ulyffes and his companions thrufting a tree in the eye of the fleeping Cyclops, who repofes after having fwallowed two men alive, is not the most puerile and ridiculous idea in the poem. In meeting with thefe marks of faded genius, it is difficult to avoid thinking that Homer after having, by the force and majefty of the Iliad, fuggefted fo many leffons for the conduct of men, condefcended in the decline of life to compofe a poem, which affifted by appofite images, and cloathed in his beautiful language, he intended for the inftruction and amufement of children.

The march of the Odyffey is befides feeble and languid. The laft 12 books, after Ulyffes is landed in Ithaca, are tedious and uninterefting. The poem proceeds from one adventure to another, without a fingle incident that either arrefts out attention, or excites our intereft. After the arrival of the hero, there is nothing which answers the expectations of the reader. He affumes an ignoble difguife, and is either occupied in the meaneft offices, or difgraced by inglorious difputes. Homer feems ⚫ here to have violated all the laws of contraft, and to have entirely loft fight of the dignity of the Epopoa. Admitting it was neceffary that Ulyffes fhould experience scenes of diftrefs, that he might extricate himself with greater glory to confound his enemies, he should have been preferved from the abject degradation in which he is often funk, and by means more worthy of his character. The deftruction of Penelope's lovers is more poetical, but the intereft of the combat is weakened by the too fudden interference of Minerva with her ægis, by which the danger of Ulyffes is too vifibly diminished and his victory rendered too certain. The discovery which he makes of himself to Euryclea, his nurfe, is tender and affecting, but we think that in the anagnorifis, or the interview between Ulyffes and Penelope, the poet has failed. This meeting, fo long and fo anxiously expected, is cold and formal, and produces none of thofe emotions which fuch a fcene was calculated to infpire. Pe nelope is too cautious and diftruftful, and the difcovery is at length effected, not, as

we might have fuppofed, in confequence of the valour of her husband or the intervention of fome favouring deity, but by a ftratagem very unworthy of the Epic, the defcription of the nuptial bed, the ftructure of which is known only to themfelves.

Though the confideration of the fmaller poems attributed to Homer, do not properly come under the head of Epopra, we hall fay a few words refpećting them here; as they are too trifling and of too uncertain origin, to make it neceffary for us to recur to them in any other place. The Batrachomyomachia, or Battle of the Frogs and Mice, though difputed by many, has been moft generally affigned to Homer. According to Statius, he compofed it, as Virgil did his Culer, as a trial of his ftrength before he began his more important poems. It is a beautiful piece of raillery, fuch in which indeed a great writer might delight to unbend himfelf. But it must be confessed that the reafons which induced the ancients to give it to Homer, are not very fatisfactory; and they appear to have afcribed it to him, because they knew no other to whom to affign it, The Hymns alfo are fufpected not to be his, and have been by the fcholiafts attributed to Cynæthus, though Thucydides, Lucian, and Paufanias have cited them as the productions of the bard of Smyrna. It is obfervable that Virgil has taken from the hymn to Venus le veral lines which he has inferted in the first Eneid, in the interview between Eneas and his mother. But whether Homer's or not, they are fuppofed to be of great antiquity, and are probably coeval with the Iliad itself. The Epigrams are extracted from the Life faid to be written by Herodotus, but have been more decidedly rejected, as having no better foundation than the authority of a book, which we have already remarked is itself fo doubtful, Ariftotle † mentions a poem called Margites, which he afferts to have been written by Homer in iambic verse. It appears to have been a fatire upon the female fex, and took its name from Margites who was the fubject of it. From the account preferved in Euftathius, it feems to have been founded on rather an indecent ftory. The Cercopes, the destruction of Echalia, the Cypriacks, and

An hymn to Ceres, attributed to Homer, published by Rhunkenius in Holland. The was difcovered by a German at Mofcow, and diction of this hymn is beautiful, but more polished and elaborate than that of the Iliad and Odyffey.

† Arift. Poct. cap. 4.

the Ilias Minor, have also been attributed to the great Father of Poc'ry, dragh Arif totle has expref-ly denied the taft to be his. It contains the ftory of Sinon, which Virgil has adopted in the fecond book of the Eneid. There are many other poc's,

to Homer; but it feems at length admitted that the only incontestable works of his, are the Iliad and the Odyffev.

We fhall clofe this account of Houser and his works, by a rapid review of the manner in which they were a coliefted, and of the different editions, an zen und modern, through which they ha.. ccenively paffed. It has been generally fuppofed that Lycurgus, the great ey lutor of Lacedæmon, was the who introduced thefe poems into Grece. It is pretended by Plutarch, that he had the first fight of Homer's poems win traveling in Alia, and that he obtained them from the defcendants of Creophilus, a fuppofed cotemporary and companion of Homer. Lycurgus, in the view he entertained of giving a new fyftem of laws to his countrymen, might probably fuppofe that poetry would have great effect in influencing and civilizing their minds; and this idea had already engaged him to patronize the fongs of Thales the Cretan, which infpired obedience and concord. As the conftitution he meditated was to be entirely of a martial nature, the poems of Homer might be of confiderable ufe to hin-they encouraged his defign, the moral they inculcated was unity, the air they breathed was military, and their fory had this particular recommendation to the Spartans, that they fhewed Greece in arms, and Afia fubdued, under the banners and conduct of one of their own monarchs, who commanded all the Grecian Kings. For three centuries after the time of Lycurgus, we collect nothing concerning them. Athens at length claimed the honour of refcuing the father of letters from the injuries of time, and of reftoring Homer to himfelf. In the days of Solon his works were divided into two distinct poems, and received the arrangement in which we now behold them. This divifion of the two poems into one, and of each into books, bas been attributed by Plato + to IIipparchus, the fon of Pififirates, though Cicero gives the honour entirely to Pififirates himfelf; and this is confirmed by § Pau

fanias, Jofephus, Ælian, and Suidas. From this period, we are enabled to fpeak of them with hiftorical certainty, without having recourie to conjectures. The works of this great poet now be came the care of kings. Alexander affifted at a firict review of them by Anaxarchus and Caithenes, either becaufe he probably confidered them as a treasure of military knowledge; or, as has been conjectured, he promoted the propagation of them, as a book, which, treating of the fons of the gods, might make the intercourfe between them and mortals become a familiar notion, at a time when he himfeif was ambitious of being thought the fon of Jupiter.

Egypt under the Ptolemies was the count men afterwards held the works

Homer in the greateft efteen. Thefe kings were defcended from Greece, and retained a paffionate veneration for their original country. Its cuftoms and language prevailed in their court. They encouraged letters and erected the greateft library in the world. A number of learned men were appointed to revife the writings of Homer. The firit of thefe was Zenodotus, ibrarian to the first Ptolemy; and, as a poet and grammarian, well qualified for the undertaking. But, according to Suidas, Ariftarchus, the preceptor of Ptolomy Euergetes, not being fatisfied with this copy, nor with that of his difciple Ariftophanes, determined to begin another. He reftored fome verfes to their former reading, rejected others, which he marked with obeliks as fpurious, and proceeded with fuch induftrious accuracy, that, notwithstanding there were fome who wrote against him, pofterity has generally ac quiefced in it. So highly esteemed was this copy, that the name of Arifiarchus was applied to every candid and judi cious critic

Arguet ambiguè dictum-mutanda notabit➡ Fict Ariftarcbus

while that of Zoilus, who about the fame time wrote many envious and illnatured criticisms on Homer, has been conugued to infamy and contempt. It was not only in Egypt, but, fays Suidas,t

Syria and other parts of Afia became familiar with the name and poems of Homer, which at length, according to Elian, extended even to Perfia and India.

But thefe poems, fo long and fo highly valued and etteemed, suffered a material depreciation on the appearance of Chriftianity. The idolatry which had infected the globe, was now to be destroyed, and the fyftem of mythology, of which Homer appeared to be the father, was equally to be abolished. Not only was his faine in a great degree impaired, but he was confidered by the rigid fathers of the Chriftian church, as the man by whom the world had been betrayed into folly and error. He is accufed by Juftin Martyr, of having wilfully fuperinduced his own fables on the infpired writings of Mofes. The rebellion of the giants was thought to be taken from the prefumptuous erection of the tower of Babel, and the cafting of Ate, or ftrife, out of Heaven, was compared with the fall of Lucifer. His fineft beauties were confidered only the more pernicious, as favouring thofe errors which had fo long milled the minds of men, and derogatory to that purer faith, which it was intended to establish. Thus the reading of Homer was difcouraged or forbidden, and himself reprobated as the great mafter of herefy and fable. It has been remarked that St. Auftin, in applying the expreffion dulciffimè vanus to Homer, parted with regret from the perufal of an author who had probably been the delight of his younger days, and that, though his zeal urged him to reprobate the heathen writers, his understanding was not blind to the fuperior beauties of the poem he condemned. But when every religious difpute had ceafed, and the nations of the earth bowed with fubmiffion and reverence to the fuperior efficacy of the Christian faith; after many ages of darkness, when literature feemed extinguished, and fcience lay dormant, the name and poems of Homer again revived. The effect of his fables and fictions on the fentiments of mankind was no longer dreaded. His mythology caine to be confidered as only a beautiful ma chinery by which any poet might be allowed to enliven the oblcurity, or obviate the fterility, of his fubject. They were no longer viewed in a religious light; but were valued for their principles and

T. 12, C, 48. † Admon. ad Gentes.

maxims of civil government and life, which might be applied to every age. And, notwithstanding the mild cenfure of Plato, the extravagant abufe of Scaliger, and the impotent attacks of more recent critics, they appear to have re-affumed their dignity in the world, and fixed themfelves on a bafis which it is not in the power of time to injure or remove.

In enumerating the editions of Homer, we fhall only mention thofe which in clude the Iliad and the Odyly, and thofe only which are confidered the best. The first in priority is the Ilias & Odyffea, Gr. fol. Editio Princeps, 1488, in the British Museum,

Another copy, with the Greek Scholia, 4to. Bafil, 1535, 1543, 1551.

Ilias & Odyffea, Gr. and Lat. with the Scholia, 2 vols. 4to. Amft. 1656; a very beautiful and correct edition.

Ilias & Odyffea, by Barnes, 2 vols. 4to. Cautab. 1711. Dr. Barnes fpent his whole fortune on this publication, which maintains its distinction, not merely from its magnitude and the erudition of the editor, but from the complete Greek Scholia fubjoined to the text.

Homeri Opera, Oxon. Gr. Ilius, 8vo. 1714; Odyffea, 1705. This is one of the moft correct editions of Homer.

Homeri Opera, Gr. and Lat. cum nova verfione & notis Sam. Clarke, London, 2 vols. 4to. 1729-1740. If this edition had the Scholia, it would be preferable to that of Barnes.

Ilias & Odyffea, Gr. 2 vols. fol. Glafgow, 1758. One of the moft fplendid editions, as well as the moit correct. Mr. Lunn, of Soho-fquare, has a fuperb copy of this edition, with defigns by Flaxman, and magnificently bound by Staggemeier.

Ilias & Odyffea, Oxon, 1780, 5 vols. large 8vo. with the Hymns and Index complete, alfo fome of the more valuable Scholia: a beautifully printed book.

Iliad and Odytley, with notes, by Wakefield, 11 vols. Lond. 1796.

Homeri Opera, cura F. A, Wolfi, Hal. Sax. 1791-1805, with the excellent Prolegomena.

Homeri Carmina, cura C. G. Heync, Lips. 8 vols. 1802,*

Most of thefe editions may be had at Mr. Lunn's Claffical Library, in Soho-fquare, which for its collection of fearce and fplendid copies of the Greek and Latin Claffics, is not excelled by any other in Europe, except the public libraries.

MEMOIRS

LITERARY CONFESSIONS OF

VOLTAIRE.

(Continued from p. 252.) [The Soirées de Ferney, printed at Paris in 1802, has not received an English drefs. It appears to be the work of fome French

Bofwell, who has been as fuccefsful in exhibiting Voltaire in conversation with his friends, as our Bofwell has been, in the fame refpect with regard to his friend Johnfon.

From this publication, which may be called Voltaire's Table Talk, have been felected fuch articles as cannot fail to be interesting to our readers.]

Volt.-H'a

E lived at Bruffels with Medina. If that banker's letters may be credited, he found him a viper which he cherithed in his bofom till he was mortally flung by him. It was through the means of Rouleau, this banker, at whose table he had been ted for fix months, was that up in a prifon. Rousseau acted as a fpy upon Medina; and upon, Rouffeau's information, that friend and benefactor, whofe houfe had been his home when none other would receive him, was dragged out of it at midnight. If what Medina charged him with be truth, Rouleau was the greatest moufter France ever rid herself of. Such an example of ingratitude fhocks all feeling; we muft fuppofe there has been fome exaggeration on the part of Medina; a man, whilft ftruggling with misfortune, is but too apt to form fufpicions, and even grow jealous of his best friends.

Friend.-Did not Rouffeau publish a letter in print against you; in which, after his manner, he related the particulars of your journey to Bruffels, and refidence in that city? I believe you had the better of hira in your reply to it.

Folt. That was no very difficult mat ter. The letter was ill written, and the thoughts were trivial. Amongst other trite obfervations, I recollect that he fays, referring to me, "I would have him to know, that a man who has a houfe full of glass windows ought not to throw flones against another's dwelling." He difcovered by this production, that, though he took great pains with all he wrote, he was not an author whofe diction was chatte and correct. As he had been for a length of time the outcaft of fociety, his evidened went for nothing; and in this letter he entered into a dull romantic story of the manner in which

we became first acquainted. With all his genius, he was deficient in the skill how to direct it; and I own to you, that without this abatement he would have

proved a dangerous man. He wrote verfes against me; they were infipid; and in an Epiftle against Calumny, I could not help fpeaking of a man who was fo guilty of it. You have all, I dare fay, feen the poem; and you may remember I call him,

Ce vieux rimeur couvert d'ignominie.

That hoary rhymfter loaded with disgrace. In this defcription I had only given in verfe what the public faid of him. I did no more than copy La Motthe, the most temperate man alive, who had faid of Rouleau before me :

Connais-tu ce flatteur perfide,
Cette ame jaloufe, où préfide
La Calomnie au ris malin;
Ce cœur dont la timide audace,
En fecret, fur ceux qu'il embraffe,
Cherche à diftiller fon venin ?
Know't thou this fawning fubtle cheat,
Whose jealous heart fwells with deceit ;
That coward heart, where fits malign
Sly Calumny, with dark defign;
And fecret, o'er devoted heads
Of thofe fhe fmiles on, venom fheds?

Rouffeau, to carry on his defigns with more effect, had affociated himself with the Abbé Desfontaines, who compiled a periodical work, which doubtlefs is not unknown to you. Desfontaines fent to Holland, from time to time, feveral little fcurrilous pieces, which he had written against me. It is proper that I fhould tell you, this Desfontaines had been shut up in the Bicétre about the year 1724, and that I was the means of relealing him from thence. This is a fact as generally known as the crime which caufed his imprisonment; I have letters from him, which acknowledge his obligations to me on that account. I confess to you, my friends, that my refentment of the injurious character given by Rouffeau of the Henriad carried me too far. I was ftrenuous in the profecution of my revenge, and I fuccceded in it. I have repented, fince my animofity has fubfided, that I was fo exafperated against him; and now fee Rouleau only in the light of a man who has been unfortunate.

Friend.-Misfortune might likewife have fowered Rouffeau's difpofition, However, the fuit is ended, and both Y y 2

parties